Despair that leads to deliverance

When I posted Thursday, I had no way of knowing what evil awaited in Aurora, Colorado, early Friday morning.  This latest example of man's fallen nature hit me just as I've been contemplating the convergence of a number of trends.  Suffice to say, I am not optimistic at all about the near future.  I see economic collapse and war on the horizon, accompanied by increasing violence here at home.  I cannot claim to be surprised; scripture warns of such things.  It's sad to see the passing of the world one grew up with.  But it does remind us not to hold on to that which is transient, and it certainly undercuts the illusion we've built that somehow we are self-sufficient.

"Facing facts as they are produces despair; not frenzy, but real downright despair, and God never blames someone for despair. Anyone who thinks must be pessimistic; thinking can never produce optimism. The wisest man who ever lived said that "he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." The basis of things is not reasonable but wild and tragic, and to face things as they are brings one to the ordeal of despair. 

When we get to despair, we know that all our thinking will never get us out; we will only get out by the sheer creative effort of God. Consequently, we are in the right attitude to receive from God that which we cannot gain for ourselves. [...]

There are people to-day who are going through an onslaught of destruction that paralyses all our platitudes and preaching; the only thing that will bring relief is the consolations of Christ. It is a good thing to feel our own powerlessness in the face of destruction, it makes us know how much we depend upon God. One thing the war has done is to knock on the head all such shallow optimism as telling people to “look on the bright side of things”; or that “every cloud has a silver lining”: there are some clouds that are black all through.

To think unimpeded and remain optimistic is not possible. Let a person face facts as they really are and pessimism is the only possible conclusion. If there is no tragedy at the back of human life, no gap between God and man, then the redemption of Jesus Christ is 'much ado about nothing.'"

Oswald Chambers, "Baffled to Fight Better: Job and the Problem of Suffering"

Thanks be to God for the redemption of Jesus Christ, and the hope and peace that pass all understanding.